Please help me as I am planning to give the ITIL Service Manager exams V2 soon so please let me which book or version of book should I read as I am not in a position to take the classes so I have to do the self study. So please let me know about the SS and SD books and any case studies, sample question books which I can refer.

I have no intention to cheat or do short cuts, I just wanted to do the self study as I can't attend the classes and I think the classes are not mandatory.Through self study also I can appear for the exam hence I just want to know what are the books I need to refer.

1 - all the information about the manager's Course, its requirements etc is available on the internet. using simple concepts / tools such as a search engine would have provided you with the information about ITIL, the certification path and the course / fee requirements

this would include training companies to which you then could redefine your search to be more centric to the geographical region

2 - There is NO need in this forum to post the same post in different forums. All of the people here have access to all of the forums and are quite capable of responding to the post in 1 forum.

3 - Welcome to the community. You have experienced what could be called the rite of passage for the community

Key points - we dont take kindly to laziness. You should use the tools like google, wikipedia etc and other web site to find information.

Dont ask us to do your leg work and do expect biting and critical posts from at least 1 of us_________________John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

In addition to the words of wisdom that John said, I would like to mention that your source of information is absolutely wrong. ISEB requires an average of 80 hours of class time (If you dont have those from the training provider, then you wont be able to sit for the exams) Also ISEB suggest 240 hours of study & preparation.

From my experience, it is very important to attend the course, because its more than just knowing ITIL there are other things that you will need to consider to pass that exams. For example: Techniques for answering the questions, relation to study case, amount of information needed for each question etc..

Register for the course, focus on the red book and blue book and please, pretty please dont under estimate this. Its the ITIL MANAGERS COURSE, Its not like foundation. This forum will be very useful to you, very rich with information and users will put you on the right track. But as John said don't expect us to spoon feed you._________________Ali Makahleh
Configuration Management(Blue Badge),
ITILV2 Service Manager(Red Badge),
ITILV3 Expert(Lilac Badge) Certified.

“If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." W. Edwards Deming.

Granted the classes are mandatory. But I am wondering, how much more do you get from the class than by reading the SS and SD books? I know a lot depends on the instructor, but I have seen the course materials and it doesn't look to me like it covers anything more than what's written in the books. Comments?

I agree - when teaching the Manager's class, we expect the students to have read the books, so in that sense we are not teaching them the contents of the books. WE are getting them to analyse, apply, question and interpret. Lots of exam practice and feedback is a major part of the time. You can see people develop their understanding over the 2 courses, even if they had read every page beforehand.
When marking the Manager's exam we find that lack of knowledge is not the reason people fail, but lack of that analysis, interpretaion, questioning and application. Many failed papers are just dumps of what the books say - and the questions are not asking for that! Analysing what the question is all about, and planning your answer makes all the difference!_________________Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance

I'm going to try to address what may or may not be an issue here, as diplomatically as I know how which is not very.

It seems that most of the questions along the lines of "do you really have to attend a course?" come from people from cultures different to those that we in the UK, Western Europe, USA, Australia etc were brought up in.

Possibly these guys are looking for the 'shades of grey'.

Folks, when it comes to the requirements for these certifications, there are none. If the certifying bodies state that attendance at a training course is mandatory, there is no, I mean no way around that.

This is a good thing, because it gives the certification the gravitas and esteem it deserves. Having such a certification shows that you have applied and extended yourself and that you are willing and able to obtain some pretty special skills.

We don't want people saying you can get an IT Masters badge out of a box of breakfast cereal now, do we?

I would disagree with you on that as its not a cultural issue, I know people from all around the world that want to get the ITIL Managers* badge out of the cereal box as you said and yes even people from the UK, but i'm affraid thats not possible.

I say to those people that think that way, to research about the ITIL V2 managers and check about the pass rate, you should study hard for this course, its not like the Pass 4 sure exams that you had before. ITIL Managers is one of the top 5 hard to achieve and paid IT Certificates, as I said earlier its one of those big boys.

Also my opinion is that the V2 Certification is much harder than the V3 Masters track, I find the V3 masters is more commercial or or Profit oriented. Thats my own opinion though._________________Ali Makahleh
Configuration Management(Blue Badge),
ITILV2 Service Manager(Red Badge),
ITILV3 Expert(Lilac Badge) Certified.

“If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." W. Edwards Deming.

Fairy nuff
I guess I was referrring to a way of thinking where paying your way and circumventing the rules is the modus operandi.
There's also a generational issue with the written exam vs multiple choice method imho.

The old farts among us were trained to be able to put thought to paper via pen, but this quaint skill appears to have disappeared (along with the radio play)_________________DYbeach
ITIL V3 Release, Control & Validation,
ITIL V3 Operation SUpport & Analysis
PMI CAPM (R)

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." George Orwell

It comes down to me - in my not so humble and quite shy and retired sort opinion - (no laughing) - that people have heard of the test and figure it is just like the microsoft certifications, the cisco etc - where there are Exam Cram books, etc etc and no requirements for course work

Whose fault is it for the assumption - it depends

The person wanting to take the exam ? not using the net for twhat it is - a pit of information - and searching for the details - he77, the information is out there - a simple google or yahoo search would get the offical itil site in its links

the training company not emphasizing the course requirements - the course is 2 weeks and takes up 2 instructors - it is a expensive course to provide and sell

If I want to take a course / certifciation, i do my best to find out about it as much as possible by myself_________________John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)